Method for Populating a Caller&#39;s Information to a Host-Based Address Book

ABSTRACT

A method and apparatus is provided to populate a caller&#39;s information to a host-based address book automatically or by a single click on a virtual button included in a popup window or by a series of simple commands.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is a continuation of the following co-pending application, and claims the benefit thereof in accordance with 35 USC 120: U.S. application Ser. No. 10/354,509 entitled “METHOD OF POPULATING CALLER'S INFORMATION TO A HOST-BASED ADDRESS BOOK” and filed on Jan. 29, 2003 in the names of the present inventor(s). The entirety of the foregoing application is hereby incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Technical Field

The invention relates generally to Internet communication technology. More particularly, the invention relates to a method and apparatus for populating a caller's identification information to a host-based address book by one or more commands.

2. Description of the Prior Art

Traditionally, if a telephone receiver wants to get a caller's information such as name, telephone number, city and state, etc., he needs to ask the receiver and write down the information manually. “Caller ID” and “Internet Caller ID” technologies have fundamentally changed this situation. As FIG. 1A shows, a regular Caller ID 103 is a device connected to a telephone. When the caller 101 called the receiver 102, the Caller ID 106 displays the caller's telephone number. Using Caller ID, the receiver can recognize who is calling before he decides to pick up the phone. This also works for intra switch. For example, when a call is placed from two people off the same local switch, just like two neighbors, the Caller ID information is still passed.

FIG. 1B illustrates an Internet Caller ID model. When a caller 101 called the receiver 102 while the receiver is online, the Internet Caller ID 104 pops up a message 105 to the receiver 102. The receiver may have a predetermined period of time, 24 seconds or 4 ring cycles for example, to decide to handle the call. He can decide to answer it, or ignore it, or write down the caller's name and phone number and call her later. If the receiver 102 did not take the call within the predetermined period of time, the caller 101 would be sent to a voice mail if the receiver has one.

America Online has developed Internet based telephone technologies called AOL Call Alert (ACA) and AOLHome Voicemail (VOX) which provide various online services including a screen popup showing the number of an incoming call, the name associated with the caller, and the city and state. While a user is online, if a caller calls the user, ACA pops up a message window showing the caller's information. The user may take the call, ignore the call, or click a button to send a prerecorded message. If he decides to ignore the call, the caller is directed to a voice mail. The user may check his voicemail from his e-mail Inbox. He can listen to the voicemail by clicking a button or forward the voicemail to other people. VOX pops up a similar message window as in ACA. In VOX, the voice mail messages are retrievable from the phone set, just like the traditional voice mail.

Using ACA and VOX, if the user wants to record the caller's ID information into his address book associated with his Internet account, he has to copy the information or type the information into the address book and save it. This is inconvenient and it even may cause errors in transcribing.

What is desired is a mechanism with which the user may populate the caller's ID information to his host-based address book by one or more simple commands, such as a single click or double click of his mouse.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

This invention provides a method to use already available caller's ID information in the Internet based telephone service to populate a host based address book. Because the caller's ID information is stored in a host based address book, it is available anywhere, from any phone, in the world if Internet access is possible. Strategically, the more addresses that are populated in an address book, the stickier that account is. If the address book is populated with more phone numbers, then it provides a basis for voice based dialing and other services.

By giving a simple command, such as a single click on a virtual button in the popup window provided by the Internet based telephone service, the caller's information is automatically populated to the host based address book. The address book stored in the user's PC and PDA can be synchronized whenever the device is connected to the Internet and the user logs on his Internet account. The synchronization may also be done wirelessly on cellular phones via “over the air” (OTA).

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1A is schematic block diagram illustrating a regular Caller ID device inserted into a telephone system according to the prior art;

FIG. 1B is schematic block diagram illustrating an Internet Caller ID inserted into the telephone system according to the prior art;

FIG. 2 is schematic block diagram illustrating a comprehensive Internet Voice Service inserted into a telephone system according to the invention;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating the scheme to populate a caller's ID information to a host-based address book and dial a call from the address book;

FIG. 4 is schematic diagram illustrating a sample popup window supported by Call Alert Service;

FIG. 5 is schematic diagram illustrating a sample popup window supported by Voicemail Alert Service;

FIG. 6A is a flow diagram illustrating a method for populating a caller's information to a host-based address book;

FIG. 6B is a flow diagram illustrating futher steps of the method illustrated in FIG. 6A;

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram illustrating a method according to an equally preferred embodiment of the invention wherein the caller identification information extracted from an inbound call is automatically populated to the host-based address book without the user's intervention; and

FIG. 8 is a flow diagram illustrating a method according to another equally preferred embodiment of the invention wherein a client computer first stores the extracted caller identification information before update the host-based address book.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

FIG. 2 is block schematic diagram illustrating a telephone service system wherein an Internet enabled Voice Service 201 is inserted into all inbound and outbound member telephone. The Server 202 maintains in its database a host-based address book for each member.

FIG. 3 further illustrates the operations of the system in FIG. 2. The Voice Service 201 may comprise a Call Alert (inbound) 301, a Voicemail Alert (inbound) 302, and a dial-tone with voice activated dialing (outbound) 303. Both the Call Alert 301 and the Voicemail Alert 302 provides a Caller ID popup window 304 which shows the realtime phone information including the caller's name, phone number, city and state as well as the time when he called. The user can add the real time phone information to his host based address book by giving a simple command such as clicking a virtual button in the pop up window.

Call Alert 301 is a service that allows the user to never miss a call when he is online. It notifies the user of incoming calls as they happen when the user residential phone line is connected to the Internet with the Server 202. Call Alert 301 uses a feature of the user's telephone service known as Call Forward Busy. When someone calls the user when he is online with the Server 202, the call is directed to the Call Alert. A Caller ID Window 304 pops up on the user's computer screen, notifying him of an incoming call. The window shows him the name, number, city, and state of the calling party (where Caller ID is available). The user is then given several choices on how to handle the call. For examples:

-   -   Take a message. The caller is prompted to leave a message for         the user. If a message is left, the user is notified with a         message alert window that gives him the option to listen to the         message right away. In addition, messages are sent to the user's         Inbox, allowing him to listen to, forward and save the message.     -   Send a sessage. The user can play 1 of several pre-recorded         messages for the caller. For example, the user may choose “I'll         call you back”, “Please call later”, “Try my cell”, or “Don't         know you”. He is able to set a preference for which of the above         actions is activated for calls that come in if he is away from         the computer or do not see the alert window in time to select an         action.     -   Ignore call. The caller hears continuous ringing so that the         user can stay online in complete privacy.

To sign up for the call alert service, the user needs to go through a short registration process. To complete the registration, the user needs to call the toll-free number given from his home phone number. This step is required by the local phone company in order to confirm he is the owner of the home phone number he has requested the Call Alert on. Note that if the line the user is online with is the same line that he wants forwarded (which it usually is), then the user is not required to go through the step of calling in. The user's order is then sent to his phone company so they can add a call forwarding feature to his phone line (the feature is “Call Forward Busy”). The Call Forward Busy service forwards incoming calls that receive a busy signal while the user is online, allowing Call Alert to give him notice of the call on his computer screen.

Call Alert 301 complements the user's answering machine and other networked devices. While the user is online, it handles the busy calls by giving him notice of the calls. While he is offline, it leaves unanswered calls to his answering machine as usual. Any networked PC or TV that is enabled with text voicemail alerts can be programmed to use speech to tell the user the real time caller identification information. This allows the user to hear the caller identification information while he is in the proximity of an enabled PC or TV. While a call is coming in, the user may pick up the phone to hear the name and number of the caller and then decide to accept the call or send it to voicemail, or he can order to add the caller's information to the host-based address book.

Voicemail Alert 302 is a service that notifies the user of voicemails. The user may check the messages via phone by calling a number or via logging on his account with the Server 202 when the user residential phone line is connected to the Internet. Same as Call Alert 301, a Caller ID Window 304 pops up on the user's computer screen, notifying him of the name, telephone number, city and state of the calling party. The user's incoming e-mails and voice mails are all stored in his Inbox. The user may listen to the message by simply clicking the button “Listen”, or forward the voicemail message to as many people as he likes, just like forwarding an e-mail, all at the same time. The user may also save the voicemail message for future review.

Address Book Dialing 303 is a service that allows the user to use the speech recognition of the voice platform as the user interface to initiate a telephone call to a person listed in the host-based address book. For example, a user may simply say “Call Mom” and his Mom's number is dialed.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating a sample Call Alert popup window 304A. The user can add the caller's information to his host based address book by simply clicking a button called, for example, “Add Caller ID To Address Book”. The user may give a series of commands to complete the population. For example, by typing and clicking, the user modifies and adds the information to be populated. Alternatively, the system may complete the population automatically without the user's intervention whenever a new caller is identified or a registered caller's new data such as phone number is identified.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram illustrating a sample Voice Alert popup window 304B. Alternatively, an Avral™ or other technique may be used to alert the user. The user can add the caller's information to his host based address book by simply clicking a button called, for example, “Add Caller ID To Address Book”. The user may give a series of commands to complete the population. For example, by typing and clicking, the user modifies and adds the information to be populated. Alternatively, the system may complete the population automatically without the user's intervention whenever a new caller is identified or a registered caller's new data such as phone number is identified, or the user may populate such information by voice command.

FIG. 6A is a flow diagram illustrating a method for populating a caller's information to a host-based address book according to the first preferred embodiment of the invention. The method comproses the following steps:

-   -   Step 601: Obtaining the caller's identification information from         an incoming call signal. The caller's identification information         may include but is not limited to, caller's name, telephone         number, city and state where the caller called from, and     -   Step 602: Clicking a virtual button to give a command to         populate the obtained caller's identification information to a         host-based address book. The user may give further commands to         modify the information to be populated.

FIG. 6B is a flow diagram illustrating further steps of Step 602 described above:

-   -   Step 603: Updating the host-based address book via the computer         which is connected to the Internet via the telephone line; and     -   Step 604: Synchronizing the address books stored in any device         such as PC, PDA, cellular phone, etc., which are connected to         the Internet.

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram illustrating a method according to an equally preferred embodiment of the invention wherein the caller identification information extracted from an inbound call is automatically populated to the host-based address book without the user's intervention. The method comprises the steps of:

-   -   Step 701: Compare a caller's ID information with the host-based         address book;     -   Step 702: If the caller's name is not found from the address         book, automatically add his information into the address book;     -   Step 703: If an exactly same entry is found in the address, no         action is needed, or simply ask the user whether he wants to         replace the existing record;     -   Step 704: If the caller's name is found but the telephone number         under the name in the address book is different from that of the         caller's, automatically add the the caller's information into         the address book as a new entry;     -   Step 705: Alternatively, if the caller's name is found but other         information under the name in the address book is different from         that of the caller's, pop up a prompt window asking the user to         make other choices.

FIG. 8 is a flow diagram illustrating a method according to another equally preferred embodiment of the invention. The method comprises the steps of:

-   -   Step 801: Extracting a caller's identification information         transmitted in conjunction with an attempted initiation of a         telephone call to a telephone line connected to a receiver's         telephone, the telephone line being connected to a client         computer with which the user may access his Internet account         maintained by a host computer;     -   Step 802: Store the caller's identification information into the         client computer; and     -   Step 803: Update the user's address book associated with his         Internet account by the client computer based on the stored         caller's identification information.

The methods described above may further include a step for automatically updating individual address changes in every member's address book. This is based on a publish and subscribe model, i.e. there is only one database record of the address that many people subscribe to. Family, friends, business associates can link to a user's address, automatically get an update to their host address book, and then have the update synchronized to all PIMs and PDAs. Given the member information already on file, the connected address book may be sent to millions of members. The addresses for all the members in a member's buddy list can also be populated.

Although the invention is described herein with reference to the preferred embodiment, one skilled in the art will readily appreciate that other applications may be substituted for those set forth herein without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention.

Accordingly, the invention should only be limited by the Claims included below. 

1. A method for populating a personal online contacts directory associated with a user's online services account, where an online services provider provides multiple Internet accessible, user configurable, personal online contacts directories each associated with a user's online services account, and where service has been established for at least some users' telephone lines such that the online services provider is notified of incoming calls to each said line, the method comprising operations of: responsive to the online services provider receiving an indication of an incoming call placed to a user, where the indication occurs while the user is logged-in to the online services provider, performing operations comprising: the online services provider transmitting a substantially real-time interactive indication of the incoming call to the user via online connection by which the user is logged into to the online services provider; the online services provider utilizing caller-ID data received in conjunction with the incoming call to extract information identifying a party who placed the incoming call; responsive to user direction submitted via the interactive indication of the incoming call, the online services provider updating the user's personal online contacts directory to include at least part of the extracted information.
 2. The method of claim 1, where service has been established for users' telephone lines such that the online services provider is notified of incoming calls to each said line under prescribed conditions.
 3. The method of claim 2, the prescribed conditions comprising incoming calls to lines occurring while the lines are busy.
 4. The method of claim 2, the prescribed conditions comprising incoming calls going unanswered by the users.
 5. The method of claim 1, where the operation of the online services provider receiving an indication of an incoming call placed to a user comprises the online services provider receiving redirection of the incoming call.
 6. The method of claim 1, where the operation of online services provider receiving an indication of an incoming call placed to a user comprises the online services provider receiving redirection of the incoming call because the user's line is busy.
 7. The method of claim 1, where the operation of the online services provider transmitting an interactive indication of the incoming call to the user comprises: causing the user's computer to display the indication.
 8. The method of claim 7, where the operation of the online services provider updating the user's personal online contacts directory to include at least part of the extracted information occurs responsive to the user selecting a prescribed graphical feature of the displayed indication.
 9. A method for populating a personal online contacts directory associated with a user's online services account, where an online services provider provides multiple Internet accessible, user configurable, personal online contacts directories each associated with a user's online services account, and where service has been established for at least some users' telephone lines such that the online services provider is notified of incoming calls to each said line, the method comprising operations of: responsive to the online services provider receiving an indication of an incoming call placed to a user, the online services provider utilizing caller-ID data received in conjunction with the incoming call to extract information identifying a party who placed the incoming call; responsive to the online services provider receiving an indication that the party who placed the incoming call left a voicemail message, the online services provider performing operations comprising: while the user is logged-in to the online services provider, transmitting an interactive indication of the voicemail message to the user via online connection by which the user is logged-in to the online services provider; responsive to user direction via the interactive indication of the voicemail message, the online services provider updating the user's personal online contacts directory to include at least part of the extracted information.
 10. The method of claim 9, where service has been established for users' telephone lines such that the online services provider is notified of incoming calls to each said line under prescribed conditions.
 11. The method of claim 10, the prescribed conditions comprising incoming calls to lines occurring while the lines are busy.
 12. The method of claim 10, the prescribed conditions comprising incoming calls going unanswered by the users.
 13. The method of claim 9, where the online services provider receiving an indication of an incoming call placed to a user comprises the online services provider receiving redirection of the incoming call.
 14. The method of claim 9, where the online services provider receiving an indication of an incoming call placed to a user comprises the online services provider receiving redirection of the incoming call because the user's line is busy.
 15. The method of claim 9, where the online services provider receiving an indication of an incoming call placed to a user comprises the online services provider receiving redirection of the incoming call because the incoming call goes unanswered by the user.
 16. The method of claim 9, where the operation of the online services provider transmitting an interactive indication of the voicemail message to the user comprises: causing the user's computer to display the indication.
 17. The method of claim 16, where the operation of the online services provider updating the user's personal online contacts directory to include at least part of the extracted information occurs responsive to the user selecting a prescribed graphical feature of the displayed indication. 